Prathik Desai Deccan Herald CA turned Journalist

Last year, this section had featured a story on a Chartered Accountant turned a one of a kind Journalist D Murali of Business Line (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/05/d-murali-journalist.html). In 2020, this section also featured story on two other CAs who accomplished themselves in the sporting arena. This story is about a young 26 year old who has taken a very different view of life and chosen a path, right at the start of his career that very few would. Prathik M Desai is a Chartered Accountant who within months of his professional degree was handed out an offer letter by Morgan Stanley in Bombay but much to everyone’s shock rejected the lucrative offer of close to a six digit monthly package instead taking the passionate route to writing ‘stories’. It did not go down well with the near and dear ones for he was the first CA in the big joint family that moved to Vijayawada from their home state of Gujarat and they were all hopeful that he would make it big in auditing. They would have at least hopeful of him taking care of the family business but like they have found in recent times, he is turning out to be one with a different vision. Here is the story of the Chartered Accountant who earlier this year joined the Business Desk at Deccan Herald, in Bangalore and now writes at least three stories a week on life in the Corporate World, and one who has different things up his sleeve and is looking to make a difference in Rural India.

Prathik was academically brilliant right from his school days though surprisingly he had his entire education in a Government aided school in Vijayawada at an annual fee of Rs. 120!!! His forefathers hailed from Gujarat but moved under a century ago to Madras. Later they shifted to Vijayawada from where for the last several decades they have been running a successful business. Almost right through his schooling, he was in the top three but into his early teens he began to have a dislike for Science. He was strong with numbers and given his aversion to Chemistry and Biology, accounts was a natural, and at the time the only, option when he entered Intermediate College (equivalent of Class XI and XII).

 

By this time, like all boys his age, he had developed an extreme interest in cricket and had featured in the districts team at the U13 level as a spinner. But it was a time that he had to wear specs and a couple of knocks on the head made his father worried and he got out of cricket. He took to an indoor game and played intense Chess for two years and climbed to fifth in the state rankings but House Leader role at school meant he got out of serious chess as well. 

In the first 15years of his life, he had always allowed himself the luxury of enjoying life alongside his academic proficiency. “I had been into Math talent test, debates and quizzes”, he looks back at his early glory days at school.

 He also wanted to get back into cricket in all seriousness as he felt there was a certain charm about being a sportsman but his father opposed this call instead asking him to focus on academics in the teenaged phase “he told me that we are a family known for proficiency in academics and that a good academic record will be of value.”

He had topped 90% all through his schooling days and he took to the Commerce Group, he developed an interest in CA when he was 16. And soon enough took to the CPT course. Prathik remembers that day when he announced to his father his decision of doing CA “It was after I told him that I wanted to do CA, that he broke the news to me that he too had wanted to do CA but because of the challenges of that time, he cold not pursue and took to business. It was the happiest I had seen him after my decision to do CA for no one else even in the extended family had done CA.”

Being in the 95+% category, the Class XII syllabus was completed (for him and a few other boys in his class) in a couple of months and the attention turned to preparation for CPT and he was put into ‘Intensive CA Care”, an exercise that he found too grueling for his liking. “It was at an institute that had year on year churned out the top CA rank holders in the country but I did not want myself to be exhausted. I would have given over 60 mock tests and prepared each day from 7am to 7pm. This resulted in him securing 90% in CPT.”

But he did not want to continue in Vijayawada and for the first time in over 17years, he moved away from his family to Madras, a city he loved so much that he now considers it his 2nd home. He was there for six months from August 2013 “I stayed in a hostel in Thiruvallikeni enjoying the Sambar Idly at Rathna Café. It was one of the most enjoyable periods in my life. I explored the entire city in my broken Tamizh.”

The six months at the coaching institute in Madras helped him clear both the groups in Inter in his first attempt in May 2014. After the enjoyable stint in Madras, he was to keen to return to his 2nd home for the 3 year articleship and he was to have his interview in KPMG in two days but life gave a new twist the first of a few that he has had in his young life “At the family function in Vijayawada, a friend suggested Bombay as an option and as per my father’s direction, I cancelled the Madras ticket and boarded the train to the financial capital.”  

He knew nothing about Bombay, except having heard of the fast paced life that he dreaded. His friend from Class XII and Madras Coaching provided him a contact at a mid sized audit firm. With all of the article wards being residents of  Bombay, he turned out to be the only outstation staffer at the firm and this in a way provided him with opportunities that may not have come his way otherwise. “I went on most of the Tier 2 audits in places such as Nasik, Aurangabad and other Tier 2 towns in Maharashtra. I got to know a new culture and made a big number of friends. It gave me great exposure and opened my eyes to new things in life.”

As a 15year old, he had begun writing short poems. With the huge amount of travel that he was exposed to, he moved into wordpress and wrote short stories “The travel led me into a new writing experience. Till then I only read the sports pages of newspapers but the Tier 2 travel inspired me to write about culture and people.”

Into the third year of apprenticeship, he had an option to do industrial training and he joined MNC firm Morgan Stanley as an intern who did product analysis. Just ahead of his CA final exams in November 2017, his brother fell ill and was in intensive care “it was a month that I spent in hospital and it hurt my preparation. For the first time in my life, I failed in an exam.”

It was in late 2017, as part of his planning adventure that he planned a long 2 month trip to the North East to explore the unknown parts of India. It turned out to be a life altering trip for the solo trip gave him lot of insights into the lives of Indian living in remote locations“It was during that trip that I understood the ‘value of privilege’ and how blessed I was to have such a supportive family. I made 50 random friends all from different walks of life on that single trip. The trip was an eye opener and took me away from the thoughts of a career as an auditor.”

Another family event – his sister’s wedding this time - a few months ahead of his next CA final attempt hampered his preparations once again. But he slogged for two months following her wedding “But by now, I had clarity on my life and announced my decision that auditing was not where I was headed. My father thought I was depressed after my first failure and tried to motivate me. In all my alarm messages, I had “Goal as CA” typed out. I studied with single minded focus to get through CA even though I was clear I was not getting into auditing.”

In May 2018, he wrote the CA Final exam but within a few days of the exam, he applied for Masters in Journalism at Christ University, an action that shocked his father. He had also planned a trip to Himachal where he was to do a teaching programme for 20 days. However with Christ University clearing his application and with the Masters starting in the first week of June (even before the CA results were to be out), he cancelled his trip and joined his college, much to his father’s displeasure “My father wondered as to what I was doing after giving my CA final exam. He simply could not understand.”

And thus in June 2018, he moved into a third new city in his life - Bangalore. He was kind of the odd man out at the University, one who had completed CA and joined a journalism course. “Almost everyone felt that CA to Journalism was odd but I went with my passion.”

In August 2018, the news came out in the middle of an event at the University that he had cleared CA final. His father was delighted but continued to wonder at this decision to pursue journalism.  “It was a dream come true for my father. I had achieved what he had wanted to do in his life.”

Soon after, Morgan Stanley offered him a job at a monthly package that was close to six digits, but to the shock of everyone in his extended family, he rejected the offer from the MNC. “Everyone thought that I was out of my mind to reject such a lucrative offer within days of completing my CA and one that held great prospects for my career. Right from my childhood I led a simplistic life and money had never been the driving force.”

He was the first CA in the family and his decision not to take up this offer or pursue auditing did not go down well with his family including his father, who was surprised at the call he had taken. 

The Pandemic was a dampener and came soon after he completed his Masters. For close to a year, he taught Journalism at the National School of Journalism (NSOJ) playing what he calls as the role of a facilitator. While he enjoyed the role and the students were delighted with his ‘facilitator’ model of teaching, he was waiting to be in the Newsroom. 

And earlier this year, when he got the call from Deccan Herald to be part of their Business Desk, he grabbed it with both hands. This Chartered Accountant now writes at least three stories in his six day work week and much like D Murali is passionate about meeting people and writing stories. He is happy where he is now though his family is likely to remind him every now and then of his professional degree. But all his life he has been clear that one has to do things that he is passionate about and writing is what he likes to do. He is also high on ethics and is clear that he would state the facts as is to the readers. 

A happy development in the last couple of months has been the appreciation from his father of his exclusive by-lined stories “Finally he has accepted writing and teaching (facilitating) as my way of life and while there will always be the disappointment that his son has not pursued auditing, he is happy that I am enjoying what I am doing.”

In his teenaged phased, he cycled 25kms a day for fun. A decade later, he is back into cycling riding around the Cubbon Park on the Weekend Mornings. He has also renewed his association with Chess and has played close to 2300 games in the last 12 months.

The Only CA and Cost Accountant TN Ranji Cricketer: 

CA National TT Player